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Rem [TAC’15] Rätsel/東亞/French/Czech | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3548 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 9 of 73 08 December 2014 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Now introducing: “The Wanderlust Hour”!
I think I may have finally found a way to deal with my ever-present wanderlust temptations. I’ve cut back on my gaming (note; ‘cut back’, not ‘cut out’ ...it’s an addictive thing this gaming business) and freed up another hour a day that I can dedicate to my lovely language studies. Basically, after I’ve worked on my core languages each day, I will allow myself to study a wanderlust language for a while. Hopefully this will help me to limit the “oh if only I’d picked ‘X’ instead” thinking that seems to pervade into my consciousness whenever I’m trying to focus. :) Of course, if I don’t feel like studying a language some days, I can always play my games instead. ;) Edit: This will either be a good idea or it wont. Time will tell I guess. :) Edited by Rem on 08 December 2014 at 1:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4800 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 10 of 73 08 December 2014 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What are your wanderlust languages? :-D All those from the original hitlist or new ones
as well? One note on your "complaint" about French not being regular enough unlike Czech. It is regular as well, even though thare are more rules to get used to. In Czech it is basically one letter-one sound. In French it is one letter or one combination of two letters together-one sound. It is still very regular unlike English where a single letter can have several readings and even after years, I can still be unsure about a new word. So, that is actually good news about French, isn't it? Can you recommend a good dubbed series in German, please? I am currently looking for inspiration. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4324 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 11 of 73 08 December 2014 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I am learning German too. Looking forward to following your blog!
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| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3548 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 12 of 73 08 December 2014 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
My original hitlist plus a couple of others that didn’t quite make it onto my final list (Russian for example). My expectations for progress with these languages will obviously be much lower than for my core ones, but at least I can tell myself that they are still there in some form (it’s strangely reassuring). :)
Well maybe there’s hope for me yet then. :) At the moment I keep getting tripped up by different sounds and the fact that the endings to some words aren’t pronounced. I think that this is just one of those things that will take some time for me to get used to, but it still feels frustrating somehow.
Here are some of the things that I’m watching/listening to at the moment: I like sci-fi, so I enjoy watching the different Star Trek series in German. They’re relatively easy for me to follow because I already know the storylines. :) I don’t know if you’ve heard of this one but “jojo sucht das glück” is a nice short German series from DW. The speaking is quite clear but there are German subtitles to follow as well if I get lost. Plus, because each episode is only a few minutes long, it’s one of those things that I can never claim not to have had enough time for. lol I also have an audio CD of some of the Grimms Fairytales in German which I’m enjoying listening to. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3548 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 13 of 73 11 December 2014 at 2:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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With University finishing for the year the onus is now on me to keep up with my German
and Mandarin studies over Christmas. The New Year is fast approaching as well, so I’m going to be thinking up a little list of language resolutions which I’ll probably post here when I have it. :) German Two words; “the passive” O.O This little grammar gem is going to take some getting used to, but I’m sure I’ll like it once I’ve gotten the hang of it..........however long that takes. Mandarin I’ve been working more on my speaking and pronunciation. One thing that seems to be helping me (at least a little) is reading sentences out loud from my course books. I’d normally just read them quietly in my head but, after trying this, I think I’m going to be reading aloud more often too. French Aside from still trying to get to grips with the pronunciation which, (now that I’ve actually started paying attention to the rules), is beginning to get a bit easier, I’ll be focusing mainly on things from my lessons so that I don’t slide too much over the holidays and maybe learning some new vocab for the areas that we’ve covered as well. If I'm feeling particularly brave I might have a peep ahead at what's coming next, but getting more comfortable with what we've already covered in class is my main objective here at the moment. Czech I’m not really enjoying the Colloquial Czech course at the moment. I don’t know why, I’m just not. :( I’m going to stick with it for a few more chapters though and see if it grows on me. Wanderlust The wanderlust language of choice for today is Russian. I spotted the BBC Talk Russian course in a shop a while ago and couldn’t resist the urge to buy it. It feels good to finally get some use out of it. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3548 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 14 of 73 14 December 2014 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I’ve signed up for TAC 2015 with all four of my core languages. :)
I think that I’ll probably just make this my TAC Log because starting a new log at this point doesn’t really make much sense. Perhaps, in the future, some of my languages will grow up and need their own rooms with more space, but for now they can share. :P Edited by Rem on 14 December 2014 at 1:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3548 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 15 of 73 23 December 2014 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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German
I’m starting to feel the strain with my German studies. German is by far my most competent language (which is not to say that I’m competent at it, just that my level in it is much higher than my level in my other languages). Now I’ve reached a stage where I’m not really sure how to proceed. At the beginner level it was all nice and easy with everything laid out for me. I just had to follow on from one lesson to the next. Now I’m finding it all very difficult to know what to focus on and what materials to use. It’s getting a little frustrating. :( My Uni classes obviously give me some structure such as dictating certain topics and vocab areas that have to be studied but, beyond that, I’m feeling a little lost. Mandarin I’ve been speaking out loud to myself a lot more recently (if anyone were to overhear me I imagine they’d probably think that I’d lost it). lol. I don’t mind though because it seems to be helping at the moment. Obviously the real test here will be when classes start up again. Hopefully I’ll be able to see some actual improvement in speaking to others as well as just speaking to myself. *fingers crossed* French I’ve been going back over everything that I’ve learnt in class. I want to be ready for when we start up again. I'm still hoping that I get the time to have a look ahead in the book that we’re using but, if not, then at least I’ll have a much more solid grasp of the material that we’ve already covered. :) PS: I’m still tripping up a lot on the pronunciation, but it is definitely getting easier as I go. :) Czech I’m still not getting on with the Colloquial book. I’m not sure if I should give it up or not (the book not the language). There are limited alternatives for English learners of Czech though, so I’m tempted to stick with it regardless. The 101 lessons are helpful to break up the monotony so I guess it’s not all bad, although their marketing strategy is really starting to bug me...(once in a lifetime ‘offers’ every other day sheesh!). I know that Assimil has a German base Czech course, but I’m not quite ‘there’ yet (it will be quite a while before I feel comfortable using German to learn another language). If anyone can recommend any alternative resources for Czech I’d appreciate it. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4045 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 16 of 73 23 December 2014 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've been using Book 2 for some of my Czech studies. Not the most lively dialogs, but I like that they go through lots of basic sentence structures slowly and give lots of variation on the same vocabulary, which for me, helps build up a stronger base than more random courses like Assimil or 101 sites.
The 101 courses can be very helpful, but I definitely unsubscribe from the E-mails immediately after signing up. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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